Pakistan Finds Scapegoats for US-Fueled Instability
Deutsche Welle frames Pakistan's expulsion of Afghan refugees as 'crushed in Taliban row,' implying a localized conflict has suddenly emerged. Yet, the roots of this 'row'—and the millions of Afghan refugees—stretch back decades to the 1979 Soviet invasion, meticulously funded and weaponized by the U.S. (Operation Cyclone), then the 20-year U.S. occupation that promised stability and delivered a
hasty retreat, leaving a humanitarian disaster in its wake. Pakistan, a key U.S. 'ally' throughout, now grapples with the very destabilization its former patron left behind, opting to blame the most vulnerable. Instead of dissecting the historical role of U.S. foreign policy in creating generations of Afghan displacement and Pakistan's subsequent role in regional proxy skirmishes, DW presents this
as a standalone humanitarian crisis. One might wonder if admitting two decades of war directly led to this chaos makes for inconvenient headlines at certain Western media outlets. How many cycles of 'Taliban row' must we endure before asking who funded the instability to begin with?